Victoria and Albert

Tennyson is the poet most closely associated with the reign of Queen Victoria, and this poem in particular is considered representative of the Victorian age. Victoria was born in 1819, and in 1837, not yet twenty years old, she ascended to the throne of England, beginning a reign that would last nearly sixty-five years. She was politically active and involved in the business of running the country, even from the start.

In 1840 Victoria was married to Albert, her first cousin. It was an arranged marriage, but Victoria and Albert fell deeply in love and consulted with each other on all matters. It was Albert who first read Tennyson's In Memoriam A. H. H. and brought it to Victoria's attention, directly influencing Tennyson's 1850 appointment as poet laureate. Under Albert's influence, while still in her early twenties, Victoria changed from a liberal to a conservative political attitude, which affected...